New Couch!

I took my bike up to the shop yesterday, huffing and puffing all the way up there, only to find it closed. I'll admit, there was some cursing. But then this cute little old Japanese lady next door told me I could leave it, it was locked up after all, and said she would tell the owners I was coming back for it the next day. Then right as I was walking away the owner came out on her way to the grocery. So I left it in their safe keeping for the night.

I went back today and they already had the old lock off. I picked out a new one (no key for me to lose, just a combination to remember) and presto-changeo I had it screwed into place 10 minutes and 2,000 yen later. Woohoo!

But the best news is I have a couch!!!






See that lamp on the floor? 900 yen. Oh, recycle shop, how I love you!

I have figured out based on my monthly spending that if I stay on here another year after this one I can save enough money to pay off my student loans in full and come home debt free. I paid off quite a big chunk already this summer. This is with me going to Hong Kong, Thailand, and possibly Beijing this year. (Yes, my job is made of awesome.) So updated plan is stay here two more years, then apply and get on Peace Boat for a 4 month trip around the world. Then come home, apply for the World Peace Fellowship and study International Relations in Argentina OR get a job making some money, hopefully at some college or university working with international students and managing study abroad programs. Maybe move to Chicago. This is the long-term plan. For now. At this very moment.

Because the long term plan says I will be here a while longer I want to make my apartment more homey, which based on the total lack of comfortable surfaces around here means buying a couch from the second hand shop. Now I just have to figure out how to get the couch from the shop to my apartment. Favors will have to be called in I think. "Friend" who likes to use me for English practice only will have to make himself useful here soon.

Even shorter term plan is finding the lost key to my bike lock. It's not looking good though. I'm afraid I'm going to have to trek up to the bike shop and have it cut off. Luckily I can get to all my schools by walking or bus, but I will want that bike sooner rather than later.

Back in Japan

I am back to school today, teaching through a haze of jet lag and hayfever. I have three elementary school visits this week, one of them a completely new school for me. I'll have to do my self-introduction there this week, so instead of getting ahead with lessons with the other two, we are doing a review game at the two schools and my intro and something I've already done with my other students at the new one. This also conveniently saved me lots of prep and I can run on auto-pilot. Good because my brain isn't functioning at its highest capacity right now.

Am so tired. It's only a few degrees below hellfire and there is no AC at my elementary schools, so naturally a good day to do a lesson that involves singing and dancing. Most of My kids were so cute doing it. I gave out stickers for the best dancers which was a good incentive. Was cracking up laughing at my last class. They were soooo into it.

Am still frustrated with the second grade teacher at this school. It's a different woman than before but even still she refuses to translate or help me out about as much as the other woman did. At least this lady stays in the classroom though. The last teacher would leave me with 38 crazy seven year olds by myself. If Japanese students weren't so well-trained I might have slit my wrists by now, but it's still difficult trying to get a game played right. I even showed her the instructions written in Japanese today and did she relay these instructions to the class? No.

Going to dinner with annoying co-worker tonight and then that's the last I'll see of him since he's going back to the US for good. I go home Thursday for a six week holiday before returning to teach one more year (maybe one more, maybe two, we'll see!) Am so excited to see family and friends. My nephew is no longer the scrawny one month old baby that I left and is now a porky 10 month old who likes to smile and blow raspberries.

Traditional Japanese Dance

Two weeks ago I got the chance to see some traditional Japanese dancing. My friend Sue's mother was performing at the library/cultural center here in Tahara. The performance went on for over three hours and the place was packed, but there was a festive air to the event rather than the stuffy atmosphere you get with the ballet back home. Perhaps it was the small town nature of it. The kimono were breathtaking, the sets amazing, and the dancing very evocative. I really enjoyed it.


Pre-preformance pic. Also pre-wig.


They had very elaborate sets which they changed for each dance.


Afterwards with Saori, Sue, Miwa, Vanessa, me and Sue's mom.

Charades Champion

After living in two foreign countries and visited numerous others, let's just say if you want to play charades, you better hope I'm on your team.

Have suffered two days with horrible allergies. Finally decided today it was bad enough to brave the pharmacist if not the doctor. A few Japanese words, a lot of mimeing, and I'm already feeling better.

And it wasn't nearly as embarrassing as the time I got a yeast infection in France. Try mimeing that one. ;-)

Saturday Night Fever

I see over 1,000 students in a month's time here in Tahara. It's impossible to learn all but a few of their names and I only remember the very good and the very bad. (Very bad being very relative. This is very bad by Japanese standards which means slightly annoying by American ones.)

My two absolute favorite students though are unforgettable. They are Miyu and Ikki. They always have a smile for me, usually michievious in nature, and I can usually count on them to shout "Oh, hello, Ms. Jennifer!" whenever they see me. I met them both last year as first graders (7th grade) and now have them as second graders (8th). The very first thing they said to me when I met them was "Saturday Night Fever!"

I looked at them confused. "What?"

"Saturday Night Fever!" they repeated. I wasn't sure what they were trying to communicate, but they seemed so earnest that I did a little disco dance for them. They almost fell out of their chairs laughing at me. Ikki I think actually did.

And so began our little joke. Now when I see them in the hall or after class one of us points and says "Saturday Night Fever" and the other person has to dance. At one point I had half of Ikki's class dancing during lucnh after I taught him to say "Let's dance" and "It's easy."

The rest of the students just laugh at us and the teachers were really confused the first time they saw me dancing in the hallway, but we have fun regardless. Miyu and I have even expanded our repetoire recently. When I say "Hawaii" she has to do a hula dance. :-)